Poetry's work is the clarification and magnification of being. - Jane Hirshfield
It is, of course, we who house poems as much as their words, and we ourselves must be the locus of poetry's depth of newness. Still, the permeability seems to travel both ways: a changed self will find new meanings in a good poem, but a good poem also changes the shape of the self. - Jane Hirshfield
TreeIt is foolishto let a young redwoodgrow next to a house.Even in this one lifetime,you will have to choose.That great calm being,this clutter of soup pots and books--Already the first branch-tips brush at the window.Softly, calmly, immensity taps at your life. - Jane Hirshfield
Perimeter is not meaning, but it changes meaning,/as wit increases distance, and compassion erodes it. - Jane Hirshfield
The Cloudy VasePast time, I threw the flowers out,washed out the cloudy vase.How easily the old clearnessleapt, like a practiced tiger, back inside it. - Jane Hirshfield